[/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman]Wednesday, November 8th, jeremysaal and I hit the road again and set our sights for the far north side of Chicago. Three hours and fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the Riviera Theater. This would be my fourth time seeing Alice In Chains, but for Jeremy it would be his first. So we went into the show with somewhat different expectations. Let me just say that neither of us were disappointed. This was an excellent show and anyone who is a fan of Alice In Chains at all should definitely catch this tour! [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Venue Report:[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]The Riviera Theatre is another very old theater in Chicago, which holds about 2300 people. It is similar to the Congress Theater in that the interior is in sad shape. It is too bad that no one is taking care of these old theaters, as I am sure that back in the day they were quite impressive. The stage and floor were smaller than the Congress, but the sound was better. The mix was very good and I thought that the volume levels were just about right.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Crowd Report:[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]I caught the Dirt tour back in 1992 at a small club in St. Louis and the crowd that night was one of the wildest that I have ever seen. So I was expecting something similar this time around. However, that was not the case. This crowd was very into the show but there was not very much action as far as moshing goes. There was a small pit during the last few songs, but the crowd was well-behaved for the most part. A number of different things factored into this. First of all, the security at the Riviera[/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman]actually attempted to control the number of people on the floor. When they thought the floor was full they would start turning people away. I don’t think that I have ever seen that before. Secondly, there were a lot of women at this show. I would say that almost half of the people on the floor were women. I had no idea that AIC had such an impressive female following. The ladies were very into the show but not into moshing, etc. So there was very little slamming and crushing going on, which was not a bad thing.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]What really impressed me the most was how loud the crowd was all night. The crowd sang virtually every word of every song. There were a number of times throughout the evening that the singing of the crowd drowned out the singing of the band-members. It was amazing for such a relatively small crowd. It was also very cool to see the band appreciate how loud the crowd was singing. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Show Report:[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]As most of you know, Alice In Chains is touring this year with William DuVall on vocals. In recent years he has played in Jerry Cantrell’s solo band. So let me just answer the big question for you right now: yes, he pulls it off. He is not a Layne Staley imitator at all. But he has a very similar voice and he sounded very good on all of the songs, both acoustic and electric. No one can really replace Layne, but DuVall did an excellent job. He definitely exceeded my expectations.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]“Whale & Wasp” was played as the intro music, and then the band just kind of walked out on stage and kicked into “Again.” “Bleed The Freak” was really cool and “Grind” was nice and heavy. “Nutshell” was a nice surprise since they did not play it acoustically, and Jerry’s solo was very cool. “Them Bones,” “Dam That River,” and “Rain When I Die” were all amazing. And that was all just in the first set! The band left the stage for about five minutes while the crew set up the stage for an acoustic set. During this break they showed some really cool footage of AIC throughout the years, mostly focusing on Layne. The crowd went nuts, of course. The band then came out to perform a six-song acoustic set. I was really surprised that they played so many songs acoustically. I was only expecting three or four songs. They all sounded great, but the highlight for me was probably “Down In A Hole.” So, after another five minute break, and some more footage of Layne, the band came back out and finished the show with all of the amps plugged in. The highlights of the last set for me were “Angry Chair” and “Would?”[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]When the band came back out for the encore, there was a fan in the crowd holding up a sign that said “Let me play your drums.” So Sean Kinney tells security to pull the guy out of the crowd and they let him play Sean’s drums for about a minute or so. Jerry just played some random riffs while the guy played some basic beats and then did a few fills. I think that they were going to let him play a song, but the guy politely declined. It was one of the coolest things that I have seen in a long time and certainly one of the coolest shows that I have been to.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Alice In Chains Set List:[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]1. Again[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]2. Bleed The Freak[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]3. Grind[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]4. It Ain't Like That[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]5. Junkhead[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]6. Nutshell[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]7. Them Bones[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]8. Dam That River[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]9. Rain When I Die[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]10. Don't Follow[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]11. Brother[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]12. Killer Is Me[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]13. No Excuses[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]14. Got Me Wrong[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]15. Down In A Hole[/FONT]

Am I the only person who thinks it blasphemy that they're playing without Layne Staley?

ADD

11-11-2006 10:42 PM

:wow:

I want to go see them so badly now!!!

The only song really missing from the setlist that I would gladly trade a few out for is Sunshine. Otherwise, amazingly good song selection. Rotten Apple should probably be there someplace too actually.

DethMaiden

11-12-2006 05:59 AM

Holy Christ, that setlist is INSANE. I'm a little lukewarm about DuVall doing vox, but with that setlist, I wouldn't care if Bert and Ernie were splitting vocal duties.

jeremysaal

11-12-2006 08:16 AM

For those of you who are on that fence, deciding if you should go or not, GO!!!! They were awesome! Plus, who ever does 22 songs these days? As Eric stated above, this was my first Alice in Chains show. As always, my buddy didn't let me down! We have seen nothing but the best this year!

As an added bonus, for those of you considering, the chicks in the crowd were hot and friendly!

Jeremy

es156

11-12-2006 09:55 AM

[quote=DethMaiden;133525]Holy Christ, that setlist is INSANE. I'm a little lukewarm about DuVall doing vox, but with that setlist, I wouldn't care if Bert and Ernie were splitting vocal duties.[/quote]

Like I said, DuVall did a very good job. I was skeptical before the show as well, but he was great. And he sounded great harmonizing with Jerry Cantrell also.

es156

11-12-2006 10:03 AM

[quote=jeremysaal;133542]

As an added bonus, for those of you considering, the chicks in the crowd were hot and friendly!

Jeremy[/quote]

:lol:

Yes, I forgot to mention that didn't I? Definitely a nice change from the normal sausage-fest metal show!

DethMaiden

11-14-2006 05:37 PM

I forgot to bitch about something, or just didn't notice it. They didn't play my favorite song of theirs, "Over Now".

es156

11-14-2006 07:26 PM

[quote=DethMaiden;133819]I forgot to bitch about something, or just didn't notice it. They didn't play my favorite song of theirs, "Over Now".[/quote]

Out of their entire catalog, that is your favorite song??

DethMaiden

11-15-2006 03:34 AM

[QUOTE=es156;133863]Out of their entire catalog, that is your favorite song??[/QUOTE]

I guess it's a pretty weird choice, and without their performance of it on Unplugged it probably wouldn't be, but yes.